Lead Light Stamping

As I mentioned in my post here, there's a new method relating to stamping, Lead Light technique which is suppose to be the effect of stained glass.  The end result is like a stamper decal in that it has an assortment of colours, but instead on making a decal and placing it on your nails, you stamp like normal and then fill in the open areas of the image using jelly polishes. LeadLight Lacquer is the line of polishes by Messy Mansion and this is how the term was coined, but you can do it with any jelly polishes. Here's what I came up with not too long ago.

Started with a base of two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, top coated with SV (no pix as have shown before).  Stamped using FUN black stamping polish using an image from CICI & SISI 10.  I chosen this image because I was going for a hand painted look and these flowers looked hand drawn to me!



I gathered a bunch of known jelly polishes that I had in my stash.  Some I had used before and others, I had not.  (I also forgot to include the American Apparel Sheers too which are jellies, not to mention that there are other jelly polishes such as Revlon Royal).  I did testing of these polishes to see which ones I liked best on my right hand and decided upon the ones that I thought would work for this design.  I didn't end up using them all simply because some were close in colour and some colours didn't fit the colour scheme I was going for but I did use a good many of them.



I started to fill in with a brush using the polishes.  I dipped my art brush into the polish brush as needed and cleaned in between as I changed colours.  Polishes used were L'Oreal Mango Mamma, L'Oreal Jolly Lolly and New York Summer Hot Pink on thumb; L'Oreal Miss Pixie on index, L'Oreal Bananarama Love, OPI Be Magentale, New York Summer Hot Purple and L'Oreal Mango Mamma on middle, New York Summer Hot Atomic Red on ring and OPI I'm Never Amberrased on pinky.



There certainly is a technique to this which I didn't really do too well until I painted my ring finger (and that was after doing thumb, index and middle).  The jelly polishes are sheer and you can have more interesting shading or even contouring if you do a combination of layers or heaviness of the same polish, which is most noticeable on the ring finger shading as above.  It's still OK to do it all one uniform colour if you wish; I just think more interesting with a combination of lighter and darker shades of the same polish! As I was going for a hand painted look, and for some interest, I wasn't worried if some of the white in the petals was visible for example, or if I went outside the lines.  I'm sure there will be times when I will want to stay in the lines and fill in everything, but it wasn't the look specifically I was going for here.

Filled in a little bit more using same polishes.



Did more fill in.



I had stamped my right hand and used it for testing on the thumb when I was trying to decide which polishes to use.  While I was waiting for this hand to dry before top coating, I chose my fave of the lot, L'Oreal Miss Pixie and filled in as best I could using my left hand.  I should point out that I loaded the brush pretty good so I wouldn't have to do several coats and again, wasn't that concerned if it was perfect but I didn't turn out too shabby considering it was painted with my left hand and I'm a righty!



Once the polishes were dry, top coated with SV to finish.





This is my other hand top coated and you can see my tester thumb too!



What is great is you can use jelly polishes that you already have on like I've shown here, but if you don't have any jelly polishes, Mentality Polish has a new line that will be released soon if not already.  Messy Mansion also has a line available; however, is still making distribution arrangements because of the strict Australian shipping restrictions so not available for shipping outside of Australia but Julia is working on it.  You can also create your own jelly polishes by adding clear to ones you already have, so lots of options!  I personally found that L'Oreal jelly polishes worked really well and I think they were my fave of the bunch but they were released last year so may not be that easy to get.  But great to use if you have them or can snag them! I liked one of the OPI Sheer Tints but surprisingly found them on the thick side (but had been warned of this in Frazzle and Aniploishes review of them here).  Sally Hansen also has a new line of jellies being released but can't say how they will work as I haven't seen them available for sale in Canada yet and they look really, really sheer from Frazzle and Aniploishes review.  But at least there are lots of options if this is a technique that appeals to you!  I also want to point out that if you are careful, you can do something similar to this with any open image; I did the same fill in with a dotter in a mani here with glitter and here with holo.  The jelly makes it more interesting as you can see the base stamping but this could be done carefully with a creme or holo polish or other sheer polishes with the right design and a steady hand! (I also wish I had have thought to use glitter in the centers of the polish in hindsight....maybe next time!)

What do you think?  Do you think you will try Lead Light stamping?  To me, it is just another way for stampers to expand our stamping options for more interesting nails and I don't think we stampers can complain about this!  There are a lot of 'open' images like this one too that lend themselves to either stamper decals or this jelly fill in technique.

Thanks for looking!

P.S.  The first name chosen for the recent Sally Hansen Prize Pack didn't respond but a second name has been chosen and an email sent!

Update:  The second winner has responded!  Congrats Summer!

http://canadiannailfanatic.blogspot.ca/2014/02/sally-hansen-prize-pack-giveaway.html